What age do you have to be to play M games, and what age are you supposed to be to play AO games? Aren't they all supposed to be geared towards adults? Forgive my ignorance...
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Depends what country you reside in:
In AUS its
G - All ages (general)
PG - Parental guidance recommended
M 15+ - Mature (15+) Audiences recommended
MA 15+ - Mature (15+) audiences only
R 18+ - Restricted 18+ (Americas equivalent to AO)
X - I don't think this is the place nor the time... ;)
*Note there is no R18+ rating for software... only film
Depends what country you reside in:
In AUS its
G - All ages (general)
PG - Parental guidance recommended
M 15+ - Mature (15+) Audiences recommended
MA 15+ - Mature (15+) audiences only
R 18+ - Restricted 18+ (Americas equivalent to AO)
X - I don't think this is the place nor the time... ;)
*Note there is no R18+ rating for software... only film
Iorning_board
Live in the U.S.
Just think of AO as a slick way of banning a game. There is absolutely no purpose for the AO rating. M=17 AO=18. Do they really think 1 year will make a person more mature? It's ridiculous.Lobster_Ear
I agree, that is rediculous. Why don't they just make it like movie ratings? Jeeze!
Here in the UK it's simple-:
Basically in the UK everything passes BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) I can't see what's wrong with Manhunt 2, we seen films like SAW III released in the cinema that's more realistic than a game, it's allscrewed up.
[QUOTE="Iorning_board"]Depends what country you reside in:
In AUS its
G - All ages (general)
PG - Parental guidance recommended
M 15+ - Mature (15+) Audiences recommended
MA 15+ - Mature (15+) audiences only
R 18+ - Restricted 18+ (Americas equivalent to AO)
X - I don't think this is the place nor the time... ;)
*Note there is no R18+ rating for software... only film
skingus
Live in the U.S.
Wlell then you learnt something today... something you will never need... :)
What age do you have to be to play M games, and what age are you supposed to be to play AO games? Aren't they all supposed to be geared towards adults? Forgive my ignorance...
skingus
Well, technically I think it is the movie equivalent of R and NC-17. With one, it is alright for kids under 18 to see so long as they are accompanied by an adult. With the other, kids can't see whether the adult wants or not.
But I think this whole thing is completely stupid. Ratings are voluntary and meant to be an education tool. THEY ARE NOT LAW. And no matter what extremist politicians or knee-jerk parents think, there is no liability to the store if they sell your kid an M or AO game. NONE. No lawyer would ever be able to prosecute a store because some unsupervised kid went to a store with $70 and bought GTA. Impossible, because the liability is on the parents and no laws were broken. It is meant to be a tool to educate.
The same thing ticks me off about movies and theatres trying to police what people can or can't watch. Stores has no obligation to police what games people buy. I will draw aline when it comes to "adult videos" or things like tobacco or alcohol and maybe that makes me somewhat hypocritical. But games aren't real and kids don't swallow them, and while I don't CONDONE kids playing games like Manhunt 2, I condone even less having stores act like consumer police. The stores are not parents and shouldn't be punished for not acting like parents.
The whole rating system is way to easy to abuse and/or manipulate. The industry doesn't want any heat when politicians are campaigning? Slap an underhand BAN on a game likely to cause controversy. Then the ESRB or whomever is in charge, doesn't have to admit to being censors and yet the game can't possibly be released . Problem solved. No heat on the industry while campaigning is going on. Not that I'm saying that actually happened...but it could due to the nature of the system. It happens all the time in the movie world. Watch the documentary "This film is not yet rated."
-broken record-
The ESRB didn't ban the game. Nintendo and Sony did by not allowing AO games on their systems. The ESRB doesn't tell Ninty and Sony how to run their companies, nor did they set up any of their policies.
And besides, an AO isn't an outright ban. PCs can run AO games just fine, without any parent-company involvement.
Here in the UK it's simple-:
- U = Universal, siutable for all ages.
- PG = Parental Guidance, Parents may wish to check the game/film first, there's nothing really bad with this.
- 12A = you must be 12 years old to view/play, or accompanied by an adult if under 12.
- 15 = You gotta be 15 years old.
- 18 = " " 18 years old (games like GTA: San Andreas, Manhunt, PREY, The Sufferiing were all given 18 certificates.
KingKoop
I like those categories more than the ESRB's. They seem to break the age differences appropriately. There's usually a big difference in maturity in a 12-year old and a 15-year old, and between a 15-year old and an 18-year old. The ESRB only differentiates between 13-year olds (Teen) and 17-year olds (Mature).
-broken record-
The ESRB didn't ban the game. Nintendo and Sony did by not allowing AO games on their systems. The ESRB doesn't tell Ninty and Sony how to run their companies, nor did they set up any of their policies.
And besides, an AO isn't an outright ban. PCs can run AO games just fine, without any parent-company involvement.
dominae
Â
True, but even if sony and nintendo allowed it you'd have a very hard time finding the game. Â A lot of stores such as Target and Walmart refuse to stock AO games. Â Remember when GTA:San Andreas had that little blurp where the ESRB re-rated it as AO due to Hot Coffee? Â Well, the Target I work at had all copies of the game removed, put in the back room to ship back, and put a sign up explaining Target's 'No-AO' policy. Â Basically, the sales of the game would be crippled badly. Â Which, from a business standpoint, is serious trouble.
Ok lets be honest if a kid wants to get an "M" game its not a big deal they can try to persuade there parents to get it for them, but when you put an "AO" ratingdown you have many stores like, Walmart, Target, and many other public stores not sell the game even though the diffrence between and "AO" game and"M" is one year. The kid will then no longer be able locate the game along with countless others.
[QUOTE="skingus"]What age do you have to be to play M games, and what age are you supposed to be to play AO games? Aren't they all supposed to be geared towards adults? Forgive my ignorance...
ZIMdoom
Well, technically I think it is the movie equivalent of R and NC-17. With one, it is alright for kids under 18 to see so long as they are accompanied by an adult. With the other, kids can't see whether the adult wants or not.
But I think this whole thing is completely stupid. Ratings are voluntary and meant to be an education tool. THEY ARE NOT LAW. And no matter what extremist politicians or knee-jerk parents think, there is no liability to the store if they sell your kid an M or AO game. NONE. No lawyer would ever be able to prosecute a store because some unsupervised kid went to a store with $70 and bought GTA. Impossible, because the liability is on the parents and no laws were broken. It is meant to be a tool to educate.
The same thing ticks me off about movies and theatres trying to police what people can or can't watch. Stores has no obligation to police what games people buy. I will draw aline when it comes to "adult videos" or things like tobacco or alcohol and maybe that makes me somewhat hypocritical. But games aren't real and kids don't swallow them, and while I don't CONDONE kids playing games like Manhunt 2, I condone even less having stores act like consumer police. The stores are not parents and shouldn't be punished for not acting like parents.
The whole rating system is way to easy to abuse and/or manipulate. The industry doesn't want any heat when politicians are campaigning? Slap an underhand BAN on a game likely to cause controversy. Then the ESRB or whomever is in charge, doesn't have to admit to being censors and yet the game can't possibly be released . Problem solved. No heat on the industry while campaigning is going on. Not that I'm saying that actually happened...but it could due to the nature of the system. It happens all the time in the movie world. Watch the documentary "This film is not yet rated."
As well written your argument is, I have to disagree. You may not like it if stores "act like consumer police", but since they're private industries (i.e. not state-runned), they have every right to to set they're own policies the way they see fit. And if they do set policies on not selling or even displaying certain products to kids (for whatever reason), then they must enforce them. If not, then you get the Jack Thompsons, the Hilary Clintons, and the Joe Libermans saying that they're not doing a good "raising our kids." Corporations can do whatever they want, but once they set their own policies, andnot through the government, then you have to respect that decision, whether you agree withthem or not. You can always go to other stores thatdon't have them, mostlynon-corporate ones, butin the case of Manhunt 2, that will be hard toaccomplish. Besides, it wasNintendo and Sony that made the decision not to release the game, not Target or Best Buy.
You maybe correct on ratings as guidelines, but it all depends on what the guidlines are. Ifthe game is Adults Only, then you have to give the ratings some teeth in saying only adults can play the game. But unfortunately, we havemany ill-informed adults buying games for their kids, so many corporationsset policies not to sell or distribute AO games in their stores let alone kids. When was the last time you saw an NC-17 rated movieinTarget, Best Buy orCircuit City. Like you said think of AO as rated NC-17.
In short, the ratings have to be given some teeth in practice, otherwise they're no good. If rated "R" means"no one under 17 permitted without parent", then youhave to mean it. Ditto for NC-17 (but that canalso hurt your marketingcampaign).
Hope this serves you well.
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